1/ I totally understand the argument that if we don't discuss issues like race and immigration then the far-right takes control of them. I would also like people to acknowledge that the far-right has almost limitless time and money to pour into these discussions, and we do not.
2/ I often hear "where is the left on these issues"? Answer: it's writing carefully-researched pieces on its own blogs with its smaller platforms, probably unpaid, whilst the far-right gets paid huge amounts of money for research-free trolling. It's completely assymetric.
3/ The night of Brexit was interesting because I saw a lot of people saying they wished they had fought harder for the EU, against anti-immigration rhetoric, but a lot of us just privately shrugged. We have spent years trying to rebut this stuff. People didn't listen or care.
4/ Look how reasonable many of us tried to be when engaging people in debate, as in this article: okwonga.com/benefits-touri… - it didn't matter. So many of us did everything you asked - show, don't preach. Too many people didn't care. I think this is the Britain most people want.
5/ Prime example:
Imagine if more people like @joeyayoub - a consistent highlight of my timeline, a brilliant analyst of current affairs - had regular high-profile columns or academic posts. The world would look completely different. Gentler, better.
Imagine if more people like @joeyayoub - a consistent highlight of my timeline, a brilliant analyst of current affairs - had regular high-profile columns or academic posts. The world would look completely different. Gentler, better.
@joeyayoub 6/ There is soon going to be a huge wailing and gnashing of teeth when the advance of the far-right and ecological collapse converge in startling fashion, and countless people will say they weren't warned. The warnings are all there but they never seem to come in acceptable form.
@joeyayoub 7/ Ha, the irony of yet another unpaid rant about social issues, which if I were working for a troll site could have been the basis of a well-paid thinkpiece and covered most of my month's rent. Okay I'll leave it there. Please follow @joeyayoub by the way, he's brilliant. /end
